Bazz maybe it, or some of it, must run in to the sea, my view we should pump water inland is not without some reservations
We must take the environment and the health of the rivers in to account
Taking it all would only turn one crisis in to another
WW2 USA USED desale to give its troops water
Costs? the rewards may be greater than costs and we need desale in our countrys future

A turn up for the books. SA has done a deal with Canberra to use our desalination plant to help the drought-stricken areas in other parts of Australia.

Before you think about coolies trotting East with two buckets of water on a stick, the desalinated water will be pumped into our reservoirs, and we will leave 40 gigalitres in the Murray for use upstream.

I hope the Easterners won't be too embarrassed to accept help from the state that they love to rubbish.

Back on subject know a bit about SA,s desale plant, knew the chief engineer before he went over to build it, good bloke
We like Israel will use it very often shame is they are privately owned wish scomo would build one in the north as part of water distribution inland scheme

But ttbn, they are making desal and paying to make it while at the same
time more fresh water is running into the sea !
They are not helping the eastern states, the river is overflowing.
They are just wasting money ! Aaaarrrggghhhh !!

Hi Bazz,

I'm not sure about fresh water running out into the sea - if you mean the Murray, flowing into the lower Lakes, they are more or less just that, enclosed lakes, with the barrage holding back the sea, and topped up by the Murray.

I'm blowed if I can understand why the desal plant wasn't turned on years ago, that this was its major purpose - to produce water for Adelaide and leave the Murray alone for the farmers here in SA and further upstream.

Ah, it's great to be ignorant, and not understand the complexities of engineering or government policy. i.e. me.

Joe

This is from the government website on the river:

The Murray Mouth

The Murray Mouth is the only site where salt, silt, nutrients and other contaminants can be flushed from the entire Murray-Darling Basin out to sea. The barrages are used to coordinate releases of water to flush pollutants from the system and prevent sea water from entering the freshwater Lower Lakes during times of low river flows.

During dry times, if enough water does not flow out of the Murray Mouth to prevent silt building up, dredging may be needed to keep the mouth open and the river system connected to the ocean.